How South Africa is tackling undocumented migration and unemployment

CABINET recently approved the Employee Services Amendment Bill and the National Labour Migration Policy.

- Solly Phetoe

These are welcome interventions by government led by the African National Congress in response to the deep frustrations of workers and society.

They seek to empower the Department of Employment and Labour to manage the flood of undocumented migrant labour into the economy and to balance this with the need to tackle the dangerously high levels of unemployment, 43.1% overall and 72% for young people.

Migration is the nature of humanity and South Africa is no exception.

South Africa's DNA is fused with centuries of migration, both forced and voluntary.

This is magnified by South Africa's status as Africa's most industrialised economy.

Whilst migration is a mark of all societies, the natural flows into South Africa have seen a massive increase over the past decade, often fueled by the collapse of other countries' economies, not just from neighbouring states such but even further afield from Nigeria to Somalia and India.

Faced with immense pressure by society to slash unemployment, government needs to err on the side of jobless South Africans.

There is no number of jobs that South Africa's medium sized and struggling economy can create to satisfy the needs of South Africans whilst continuing to see such large flows of migration.

Some may say this smacks of xenophobia. It does not. It speaks to placing the rights of South Africans first, in particular the 12 million unemployed.

Whilst we have seen a steady increase in unemployment over the past decade plus, we have seen many employers, especially in vulnerable sectors, opt to employ undocumented migrant workers.

They do so knowing the vulnerability and desperation of undocumented migrant workers.

Large shifts have been seen on farms, in petrol stations, restaurants, domestic work, construction sites amongst others.